Survey says maybe we don't really hate each other

A new analysis of public opinion polls suggests that Americans may agree on more issues than you have been led to believe.

Voice of the People, along with the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland, aggregated responses to 388 policy-related questions from 24 different surveys conducted between 2008 and 2013 by major news outlets and research centers like Pew. The non-profit — which seeks to give citizens a greater role in government — and the academics then compared the answers of respondents in "red" electoral districts with Republican representatives to those in "blue" areas that tend to vote Democratic.

The red and blue constituencies opposed each other in just 14 questions, or 3.6 percent, the study found. Respondents particularly agreed on economic issues. When they were asked to come up with a federal budget, most suggested raising revenues and trimming entitlements. They also agreed that corporate profits and individual incomes of more than $1 million should have higher tax rates. The constituencies only disagreed on "hot-button" issues that are heavily dramatized in the media like gay rights, abortion rights and gun ownership. Those three issues accounted for 11 of the 14 polarized questions, according to the study.

While the public shows broad agreement on policy issues, they are still divided along ideological lines, according to Steven Kull, the Director of the Program for Public Consultation.

"If you say slogans like 'government regulation does more harm than good' or 'we need to increase the size of government,' people are more polarized," Kull said. "But when you ask them about actual policy questions, there's rarely any difference between red states and blue states."

Kull added that the contrast of bipartisan agreement in public and polarization in Congress shows that special interest groups have more influence in Washington than voters.

"The interest industry has grown in recent years," Kull said. "The American public is frustrated by the perception that the government doesn't serve the common good, but only people with access."